"THE PAST DOESN'T MATTER NOW" - KAUCZINSKI AND HIMMELMANN BEFORE THE DERBY
Friday, 28. September 2018, 17:10 Uhr
Ahead of the game against HSV, head coach Markus Kauczinski and goalkeeper Robin Himmelmann spoke about the game and their derby experience at the pre-match news conference. Kauczinski also discussed the injury situation.
The St. Pauli boss is fully focused on Sunday. "Anything that's gone before doesn't matter now," he said. "And yes, the nerves are starting to tingle. We're really looking forward to it and there's no need to play that down," he added, underlining the importance of the game.
Squadwise, the Boys in Brown came through Wednesday's game against SC Paderborn unscathed. "We haven't picked up any new injuries," said Kauczinski. "Marc Hornschuh, Jan-Philipp Kalla and Luca Zander are still sidelined. Bernd Nehrig and Sami Allagui have both trained and are ready to play, but I'm still giving that some thought."
Asked about his derby past, Kauczinski said: "I remember from my time at Karlsruhe that the games against Eintracht Frankfurt, VfB Stuttgart and especially Waldhof Mannheim were very feisty affairs. As for HSV, I prefer to focus on the things we want to do better not them."
The St. Pauli boss usually faces the media alone but this time he was joined by Robin Himmelmann: " As soon the fixture list came out, the first thing we did was to look when the derby was," he said. "We haven't had much time to prepare because of our busy schedule but we're glad to go into the game on the back of two victories. And as far as local derbies are concerned, the only experience I have is with FC Schalke 04 II and the games against Rot-Weiss Essen and Borussia Dortmund II. The sense of anticipation is huge and increasing with every minute. We're focused and fired up for Sunday. That said, we have to keep a cool head. We can't afford to run around like madmen. We have to stick to our plan. We've touched on it today and will talk about it again tomorrow."
A lot has been said and written in the last few days about the last meeting between the two clubs in February 2011 when the Boys in Brown won 1-0 at the Volkspark. "I've been here a few years now and I've looked at the footage of the last derby several times and did so again just recently. We'll do our utmost to maintain our derby nimbus. Another win will do nicely."
Photos: Witters
